waiting, frustrations, and a sense that nothing had been accomplished in
the 11 hours I had thus far been awake. Feeling rather grimy, sweaty,
and in general ready for a shower, I hopped in. Now in the states, when
I'm at home, I'm all about quick showers. You just waste so much time
in the shower. Here, I'm all about wasting as much time in teh shower
as is possible. I massage the shampoo into my hair, take a long time
soaping up, scrubbing everything judiciously (including my back) and in
general, sitting in a hot tub while standing up.
Finally deciding I was late enough for dinner as it was, I turned off
both the hot and cold taps. The only problem was after I turned off the
hot water tap, I was holding it in my hand. That's right. The nob that
shuts off the hot water had broken off and was in my hand. It took me a
second to realize what that meant, and then I observed the water
streaming from the hole where the tap should be as well as streaming out
of the shower head. It seemed the water could not escape sufficiently
fast enough just through the tap and the shower wanted to douse me with
scalding water too. I'm all about hot showers (if the water is
available - otherwise, I'll do a cold one no problem); however, this one
was out to get me.
I flipped the little lever that routed the water to the faucet instead
of the shower head and now there was just a steaming pool of water in
the shower that was constantly replacing itself as it flowed down the
drain. I looked at the handle in my hand and noticed there were some
treads on it. "Good" I thought as I tried to screw the handle back into
place, hoping that it would work, ignoring the areas of broken metal I
had observed making it apparent it wasn't going to work anyways. All I
succeeded in doing was screwing the nob into the hole (it screwed onto
something) but it wouldn't shut anything off. In fact, it turned the
water from the steady stream of a fire hose into a veritable shotgun,
spraying a hefty radius with steaming pellets of water.
About this time I begin to realize that my feet really hurt because I'm
standing in the super hot water just flowing from the shower. Realizing
the screw approach wasn't working at all, I just pushed the handle in
and what do you know? It stopped the flow. Only problem was I really
had to push it in, and it was going against the build up pressure of
water coming from the water heater next door. I tried tying it with a
bit of string a couple times, avoiding the faucet as the hot water had
turned the metal fittings into a maze of hot steel. It wasn't very long
before I realized that wasn't going to work. I only succeeded in mildly
burning myself a couple times and then decided I should probably desist
that action since it was going no where.
I dried off a bit, tossed on some shorts and a shirt and went outside.
Finding the one worker that stays the night (along with 3 guards) I told
him I had a big problem in my room and I would show him. I said the
water wouldn't stop in my bathroom and he looked skeptical. He was
probably expecting a bit of a leaky faucet. Oh was he surprised when he
looked in the bathroom and froze. I was trying to communicate that we
should probably shut off the water when he said "I'll shut off the water
and we'll fix it tomorrow." Eh, that's fine with me. I go down to
dinner, go to sleep, and am chilling at Maji today, trying to forget
about yesterday.
I was doing a really good job of forgetting yesterday via lots of
reading and other random stuff and the plumber was doing his thing. He
left to get something and I eventually went and ate some lunch. After
eating some granola with a bit of Nutella (a chocolate spread that is
absolutely delicious) I settled into the living room down stairs and did
some reading. I was thoroughly enjoying my book when I wanted something
in my room. Deciding I could read there too, and also watch the plumber
if he came back to make sure he didn't take anything (I wasn't worried
at all, but people keep warning me about the possibilities of my stuff
just randomly disappearing) I head back to my room.
Approaching the room I know progress is being made because I can hear
running water and I think "oh good, he's testing it out before
leaving." Oh was I wrong as I opened the door and observed water
flowing from my bathroom and into my room. At least half my room was
covered with water, and not just a little bit either. Because the floor
is uneven, there was quite a lot of water in some places, and it was
spreading rapidly.
Grabbing my computer cord from the floor and checking what the problem
is, cold water is now spraying from the cold tap that is open because
the plumber was going to replace the whole thing, and it's just flowing
all over the place.
Once again I'm out in the yard looking for someone to turn off the
water. I quick find someone and tell them we must stop the water and
show him my room. "I'm going to turn off the water" he says. Duh,
that's what I asked you to do. The same worker that helped me out last
night came and checked out what was going on too and he was like "what
happened?" Mama Ngeleza came and together we cleaned it up. Most of it
she squeegied out the door and there was a lot of water coming out. It
was much too much to soak up with towels.
The water had got on some of my shoes, which were laying sideways, under
a bin, and my table, so I moved that stuff outside and set it in the
sun. Only problem was 10 minutes after we start ridding my room of the
water I'm in the bathroom and hear a pitter patter on the roof. Crap.
Not only is my room flooded, but now it's raining too? Right after I
stuck all my stuff that was wet into the SUN 10 minutes ago?
It was a pretty bad two hours. The highlight of it by far was when the
plumber came back and saw the huge mess and looked utterly astonished
and Mama Ngeleza is there yelling at him and yelling at him and yelling
at him. I didn't understand most of it but I did understand that she
was convinced it was his fault (as am I) and that she was not happy
because she had been tired all day and now she had to come and clean up
(I volunteered to do it myself but she wouldn't hear it) and all my
stuff was wet and I had some good stuff that's wet now and he should
feel bad. It was great. It almost made it worth it... Almost.
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